divided government is a good time to solve hard problems. and in the next few days leaders in washington have an important responsibility to work together and do just that. >> two reports for you here at the top of the hour. nbc's luke russert and nbc's kristen welker look at the capitol, kristen at the white house. luke let's start with you. next 72 hours, what are they supposed to look like and what's happening right now? >> reporter: it's interesting, t.j. i'm here at an empty capitol hill. it really is. minority leader mitch mcconnell, majority leader hay harry reid are negotiating over some type of package to avert a large tax hike on the middle class. what the package would look like we don't know. over the next 72 hours we'll have the negotiation, between mcconnell and reid going to go onned to. tomorrow the house of representatives gavels back into session about 6:30 p.m. if there is to be a deal between reid and mcconnell it would most likely be presented to the house gop tomorrow. possibly we could have a vote late sunday night or